


Seven times Ginny Weasley met Luna Lovegood after leaving Hogsmeade station

by Gazyrlezon



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/F, F/M, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, and its non-discussion in canon, dealing with Ginny's mind rape
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-11
Updated: 2016-08-11
Packaged: 2018-08-08 04:35:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,959
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7743613
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gazyrlezon/pseuds/Gazyrlezon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Ginny first came to Hogwarts she met a strange girl with dirty blond hair so light that it almost seemed white.</p><p>And every year after that, she meets her again, every time after leaving the station at Hogsmeade.</p><p>These are these meetings, and how Ginny feels about them.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Seven times Ginny Weasley met Luna Lovegood after leaving Hogsmeade station

**Author's Note:**

> Oh, in case you didn't catch that: I'm not JK Rowling, so nothing here really belongs to me. Now that's a surprise!

#### First Year

Her first year in Hogwarts was Harry Potter's second. She'd known that for years, of course, had even written it in her new diary, the one she'd found hidden in her other books, but it still bugged her. Why couldn't she be a year older, like Ron was? It would be so _easy_ to search him out, to become friends with him. They'd have all their classes together, after all.

Now she'd only ever see him in the common room (or even more seldom in case she wouldn't be sorted into Gryffindor - but she was positively certain she'd end up there. Everyone else did, after all) and maybe sometimes in the corridors. How were you supposed to make friends with someone who you only ever got to see for a few hours a day, if at all?

Ginny couldn't help but wish that there wasn't a year between them. Even if she managed to get his attention, he already _had_ friends, and friends who didn't blush every time they saw him, the way she did. It was infuriating, how her cheeks always began to burn whenever he even looked at her. Not that she didn't enjoy his looking at her, she just wished it was less _painful_ , and that Fred and George would stop teasing her about it.

She'd tried to talk to him so often, during the summer, when he'd come to stay at their home, after her brothers had rescued him from his wicked muggle-family. How she hated them for not telling her first! They never even thought of her whenever they did anything, it never even _occurred_ to them that she might want to come rescue Harry with them, too. That just wasn't fair!

She'd have to try again, then. Yet when the train had stopped and the upper years went to the carriages to be brought to the castle, of course the first years _had_ to use these stupid little boats, of course, because of _tradition._ How was she ever supposed to talk to him?

When she saw there was nothing to change it - she'd originally thought that she might be able to sneak away and to the second-years, but of course stupid Hagrid had noticed her, because he was twice as tall as her father and it just _wasn't fair_ \- she got into one of these stupid boats, and was joined shortly by another girl. She had blond hair, so light it might almost be white, but so dirty that it looked more like gray. In some weird way it managed to look about as miserable as Ginny herself felt right now.

The girl seemed shy, and didn't even say hello, so their journey was covered in a depressing silence.

_She's stupid_ , Ginny decided, _just like all the rest._

The only nice thing was that of course there'd be a welcoming feast, and maybe she'd be able to talk to Harry there. She really needed to write that into her diary in case she succeeded.

Then later she learned that Harry'd come to school in her father's flying car, and felt even worse. He hadn't even been there when she'd searched for him.

#### Second Year

Her second year at Hogwarts came as something of a surprise for Ginny. She'd never have believed that she'd be allowed to go there again, after what had happened the year before. Of course Professor Dumbledore had said that it hadn't been her fault, that Voldemort - her Tom! - had done everything, and that it most definitely wasn't her own fault when she'd nearly killed all these students.

But of course it was her fault. How could it not? Maybe at first she hadn't known what happened, but then she _did_ , had noticed, had even tried to get rid of her diary - and then Harry had found it, of course, and hadn't even liked the song she'd written for him, and of course she couldn't allow Tom to tell Harry everything she'd told him, because of course Tom would, he was mean and _evil_ \- so she'd stolen it back, and had been forced to keep it, and then everything had started again, and _of course_ it was her fault. Dumbledore just tried to be kind, or maybe he really didn't know, but Ginny _did._

She nearly forgot that she had to catch one of the carriages to get to the castle, she was distracted so much by thinking about it all. What if it started again? She hadn't meant to do anything last time, and yet she did, she _had_ done _everything_ , and now she didn't know - what if she'd find herself in some empty corridor again, with paint all over her?

_Don't be stupid_ , she told herself, _Tom's gone, you saw how Harry had thrust the basilik's tooth through his book._

And yet. And yet …

She was late already, she knew that, and most of the carriages were already gone or full, and she had to run through all the mud to the very last ones to find one with even _one_ seat still free - and she didn't really want to be around people right now, didn't want so many of them around her - what if she suddenly woke up and found one of them dead in front of her?

At last she found one that, while not quite empty, had only one occupant, a blond-haired girl that seemed vaguely familiar.

_Luna Lovegood_ , some part of her mind supplied, and she realized that the girl was in the same year as she herself was.

“Hello Ginny”, the girl said, and she remembered how she'd once thought her stupid for being quiet around people. How stupid had she _herself_ been, back then? She couldn't even imagine speaking with too many people present, not even now, months later.

“Hello”, she replied, in that small, low voice she'd now used for months now, and yet it still felt so very alien every time she spoke, so unlike the girl she'd used to be, once.

_Go away. Find another carriage. I don't want to find your dead body lying in this carriage when I wake up again._

Suddenly, Luna moved as fast as lightning, and she heard a slap beside her, as if the girl had tried to catch a fly.

“I think there's a wrackspurt flying somewhere around your ear. They make your thoughts all dark and gloomy.”

For a moment, Ginny was so surprised and distracted that she almost laughed.

#### Third Year

At the start of her third year, Ginny allowed herself to feel something like relief. She'd made it through her whole second one at Hogwarts, and not once had anyone been killed or petrified, at least not by her. It was wrong, she knew, she shouldn't feel relief, not now, with the dark mark above the field at the Quidditch worldcup, but she couldn't help it.

She felt a bit better.

That didn't stop her nightmares, of course, of waking up and finding that she'd killed Harry and that his body was lying there on the floor, and that everything was _her_ fault all over again, but she still felt better than before.

And she even had something to look forward to, too! Not Harry, of course, he'd been living with them during half the summer, after all, but a friend.

She hadn't expected that, if she was truly honest with herself.

No one would make friends with someone who'd tried to kill people.

And yet someone had, and now she found to her surprise that this time she was searching for a carriage with a certain girl in it.

If someone had told her that a year ago, she'd have thought them mad.

But here she was, climbing into that carriage Luna had said she'd be in, when she'd run across her in the train.

She thought it slightly sad that she hadn't been able to get into a compartment alone with her, but you had to take what you could get.

A year ago she'd been a shy and broken girl, and while Ginny was by no means truly whole again by now she'd at least meat a girl as broken as herself, someone who could truly understand her, much more so than her mother or even Harry, who had, after all, rescued her from what had come out of the diary.

Many thought that Luna wasn't quite right in her head, and Ginny wasn't entirely sure the were wrong, but then again she didn't feel wholly true inside herself.

“Hello Ginny”, Luna said, echoing the words as she'd spoken a year ago, when she'd first really spoken to her. Back then, Ginny had at first refused to even acknowledge her for fear of killing her, yet now no thought could be further from her mind. Well, almost, but still.

“Hello Luna”, she answered.

“It's good to see you again.”

#### Fourth Year

Her fourth year started out troubled. Harry had almost been expelled, Cedric had been killed, and even Dumbledore couldn't help them.

And she cared about all that, she truly did, but nothing could even come close to Voldemort's return. _Tom_. Tom from the diary. Dumbledore had said that everything she'd done had truly been his work, and even if she still doubted that a bit, there was no denying that it was him who'd started it.

Now he had a body of his own, and he'd be able to do the same to other people.

And maybe he'd do it to her again, too.

What would she do then?

More importantly, what would everyone else do then?

She was so distracted that she almost forgot that she'd agreed to meet Luna in one of the carriages again. Still, she remembered quick enough to catch it, even with time to spare.

Luna never even asked what it was that frightened her - she didn't have to, she just understood, often better than Ginny did herself. Instead, Ginny just found herself in a tight hug, and more grateful for it than she'd ever been for any other hug. It wasn't like any other she'd ever received before, entirely unlike the tight and loving, but somehow embarrassing ones her mother always gave her.

They'd just broke apart when Neville showed up, and then Harry and Ron and Hermione, and while Ginny never said a word about it to Luna again - at least not for now, not so soon, that wouldn't be the right time for it - she somehow felt inexplicably better, so much better, and _safer_ , than she had before.

And suddenly she realized how many friends she'd made since the diary without ever noticing it, even just a month ago with Sirius and Tonks, and felt a bit less broken.

#### Fifth Year

Her fifth year would be a difficult one, she knew that right from the start. And that wasn't just because of Voldemort, or because of Sirius's death the previous year, or because everything else that had happened in the Ministry. No, it would be difficult because the DA wouldn't exist any more, and she'd have less opportunities to see Luna. Of course she'd seen her a lot in the previous years, too, before they'd ever even thought of the house-overarching defence club.

It was just …

She remembered that, years ago, she'd wondered what would happen if she wasn't sorted into Gryffindor, how she'd ever be able to make friends with Harry. It felt as if the world itself - or maybe just the sorting hat - hat chosen to mock her by putting her into the house she'd wanted at the time, only to have the girl who'd later become her closest friend put in another.

She knew she really shouldn't think of that. Voldemort had stopped hiding, had started butchering people, same as his Death Eaters, yet all she could think of was a girl and how sad it was that she wouldn't even be able to see her as often as she'd used to.

_I'm just thinking of myself_ , she thought, _when I should think of others._

Yet as she climbed into the carriage, she remembered that Dumbledore had once said that you shouldn't let Voldemort rule your mind.

_Take that, Tom. You're back and terrorizing the world, but you don't have power over me anymore. Never again. You don't have power over me, because I'm just here, thinking about Luna, not about whatever it is you're doing right now._

And Luna was there, of course, as she always was.

Ginny didn't know what she'd do without her.

#### Sixth Year

Her sixth year would be hell, she supposed. Well. Harry was out there to get Voldemort, he'd promised her that, and while Voldemort now controlled Hogwarts together with the rest of Britain, she would certainly put up a fight for herself.

And she was certain that Luna would, too, and that maybe Neville would join them. Hell, no, that didn't do him justice, he'd been at the ministry same as they had. Neville would _most certainly_ join them.

Snape was headmaster, she'd been told, and she was determined to show him who truly ruled in Hogwarts, at least outside the classes.

_The students._

As soon as they arrived at the station in Hogsmeade she became even more determined. No carriages waited here this year, instead the Death Eater-teachers waited for them there and had them march to the castle, as if they were soldiers on their way to a battlefield.

Yet they couldn't control her, and not Luna, either. Without even thinking they ended up next to each other, and while neither of them said a word aloud, together they felt they'd already defeated the grim and gloomy thoughts the Death Eaters wanted them to think.

While marching, they thought of everything that had happened last year, and everything that had only happened with them, without anyone knowing. They'd used to hug each other for years, so it had only felt like a natural extension when they'd started kissing. Ginny couldn't even remember who'd started it, not even if she tried. Probably, they'd both thought of it the same time, and then both together initiated it. They both understood each other better then themselves.

In fact, Ginny remembered that it had taken her quite some time to become aware of just what it meant, till that one time in the corridor where Ron had found her snogging Dean. Only then did she realize that there was _any_ connection between what she'd done with him and what she did with Luna, when she'd heard Ron call what they did “kissing”.

It was nice with Dean, of course, otherwise she wouldn't do it, but she couldn't even imagine being as close to him as she was to Luna. What a silly thought. That with Dean was just what she did because Hermione had once told her she shouldn't be so fixated on Harry, but it had never occurred to her that might mean being with him as she was with Luna.

And when she became Harry's girlfriend, even though it was a dream come true for her, after all these years spent swooning over him, she never felt the same with him as she felt with Luna. How could she? He was as brilliant and lovable as anyone could ever hope to be, but he just didn't _understand_ in the same way Luna did. It didn't feel to her as if she was a girlfriend to two different people, because whatever relationship she had with Luna was as strange as Luna was herself. It just wasn't a lover-type of relationship, though she'd be hard-pressed to describe what it was instead, bust she was certain that they didn't really were _girlfriends_.

And Luna felt the same, she know. Not once had she been jealous of Harry, which Ginny knew because she understood her as well as Luna understood her, and just to make sure she'd asked once, and Luna had looked at her as if she'd gone mad.

They were almost at the castle now, and though Ginny knew the year wouldn't be easy on any of them, with Luna beside her it felt as if nothing could hurt her.

Yes, they might be soldiers marching to a battlefield, but not to the one the Death Eaters liked to think.

#### Seventh Year

Ginny's seventh year at Hogwarts felt somehow unexpected. Voldemort was dead, and while there was much still left that needed to be done, it felt as if the important things were over.

The hard things certainly were.

The train had been as comfortable as it was supposed to be, and the carriages were back in their proper place, too.

If last year had been about resisting and surviving and then finally fighting, then this one would surely be about rebuilding. Even in the ancient walls of Hogwarts still gaped holes, and even uglier ones were left in her family, and in those of many others.

But there was one thing that didn't need rebuilding. Luna was there when she climbed into the carriage, and it felt as natural as anything ever could hope to feel.

She wasn't exactly sure if her relationship with Harry could ever coexist with Luna without one getting in the way of the other, even thought they felt so fundamentally unlike each other, so entirely _different_ , but she figured she'd got years to sort that out. There was no Voldemort now, after all, no one out there to threaten them, only they themselves. Every problem they had now they'd sort out eventually.

For now, she was in a carriage with Luna again, as she'd been so many times before, and she didn't think she would feel happier even if she tried.

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this after reading an excellent article on fandomfollowing.com ([this one](http://www.fandomfollowing.com/canon-compliancy)). It's actually about something else entirely, but it also mentioned Ginny's and Luna's friendship and how well they fit together, and now I can't help but ship them …
> 
> It's been a while since I read the books and I can't currently have a copy with me (I'm on vacation), so I apologize in case I remembered anything wrong.
> 
> Edit: I'm back home now. Blimey, but it's so much easier to write on a proper keyboard.
> 
> So, well, something else that's probably obvious but I still feel the need to point it out: I have, of course, written this also as a means of dealing with the almost non-existent discussion of Ginny's [mind rape](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MindRape) that went on for _almost a year_ in the books themselves. I don't know about you, but the fact that it's never brought up again until book five (and then it's not even really about her, it's about the possibility that maybe Harry was possessed by Voldemort, too) always had me a little uncomfortable …
> 
> So naturally, this seems to be a bit darker than canon (but then, when you look at what else I write, you'll notice that I seem to be incapable of writing things that are _too_ happy and light).
> 
> Oh, also, changed the title. Wasn't really happy with the old one.
> 
> Ah, one last bit: I wonder if anyone caught all the random shout-outs to _The Slow Regard of Silent Things_ I couldn't help but put in, because Auri is in some ways exactly like Luna, and yet in others completely unlike?


End file.
